Even Teddy was pretty quiet, leaning all the way over so that she could rest her head against Emily’s side while she moved Emily’s arm over her shoulder like a blanket.

The van stopped eventually, and Slaymaker squeezed his way out the back.

On exiting, Emily found herself in a familiar parking garage. Melaton was nearby, leaning against the back of her car with a cigarette pinched between two fingers. Emily glanced around, but there wasn’t anyone telling her where to go or what to do, so she helped Teddy out of the van and wandered over to Melaton. “Um, hi,” she said.

Melaton blew out a plume of smoke from . . . not a cigarette, but a thin cigar. “You can’t stay out of trouble, huh?” she asked.

“It wasn’t our fault,” Emily said.

The woman shook her head. “Want a ride back to the park?” she asked.

“That would be nice,” Emily admitted. She knew it was only early evening, but she felt like . . . well, like she’d been out doing social things all day.

Melaton slid her cigar back between her lips and shoved off the back of her car. She strode over the trunk, stepped onto the top of the driver’s seat, then fell down behind the wheel. “Come on.”

Emily scrambled to get into the passenger seat, using the door because the idea of stepping on the car so casually felt superoffensive. Teddy got into the back seat and buckled up with no protesting. She seemed tired, which was completely fair. She’d worked hard.

“Same place?” Melaton asked.

“The park? Yes, please.”

“Hmm.” Melaton backed them out, then took off with a squeal of burning rubber. In no time at all they were violating traffic laws and heading over to the park. “We had something of a live feed going on,” she said.

“Oh?” Emily asked.

“Negative points for following along with Hindsight’s shit plan, but otherwise, good work.”

Emily sank into her seat. “Was that normal?”

“Nah. We get maybe two, three Villain attacks a month, at most. It’s worse this time of year, of course. Calms down, and by midsummer—” Melaton cut herself off as she changed over two lanes without so much as glancing back. “By midsummer it’s quiet as hell for us. Endgames are generally rougher by then, though.”

“Oh,” Emily said. “Okay. And, ah, do you know what the Cabal is?”

They almost rear-ended a truck as Melaton’s head whipped around. “Where’d you hear that?”

“The Villain, Small Package? He muttered something about that.”

“Damn,” Melaton said. “Just pretend you didn’t hear anything. It’s for the best. And get rid of those phones.”

“Okay,” Emily said. She took out the phone she’d been given, and lacking a place to put it, set it in a cup holder. A glance behind showed Teddy snoring through Melaton’s driving, so she’d need to grab her phone later.